


Biology

by littlecloud



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Childbirth, F/M, Family, Gen, Not incest though, Uncle-Niece Relationship, no blackout au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-31
Updated: 2014-03-31
Packaged: 2018-01-17 17:43:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1396792
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/littlecloud/pseuds/littlecloud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Charlie having their first child is just too much for Bass' stomach to handle. Uncle Miles has to swoop in and save the day!</p>
<p>(Based on the prompt, "I'm sorry, but I was watching one of those childbirth shows and now I want to prompt a thing where Charlie is having her first baby and Miles is the only one there in the hospital with her and even though he was totally going to just hang out in the waiting room, he can't just leave her alone and sits with her until the bouncing bundle of screaming joy comes into the world." )</p>
            </blockquote>





	Biology

**Author's Note:**

> :D

“Bass has always been squeamish.”

Maybe telling Charlie a story would help – or at least quieten – her into the particular concentration the nurse kept trying to edge them into. She had not said it aloud, but through several waves of beginning and failing a rhythm of pushes, it became evident that the delivery was not going as seamlessly as it should be. Otherwise, Miles would have been able to remain in the waiting room, as he anticipated. From his view beside the surface almost too flat to be called a bed, he could not gather who was the more exasperated of the two – the woman in labor or her aide. Although only one had tears, the temperature of fire, heating up her cheeks, both seemed to be struggling to focus on their allotted task. And, again, Miles wasn't sure, but judging by the hospital's reaction, not many fathers had to be escorted out of the delivery room on account of nausea whilst their wife suffered alone.

“This is basically a repeat of seventh grade Biology class,” he joked, hoping the tension in his voice was quiet. “He fainted before we even began to dissect our frogs. His parents had to pick him up out of the nurse's office, and I let him copy all of my homework so he didn't fail the class too miserably. But he always ended up fine, you know.”

He wanted to add that it would be okay this time, too. He didn't, instead watched the dimples on his niece's face inhaling and exhaling like a heartbeat while she worked her muscles. Wincing, her eyelids slit open just enough to cry. To release saltwater onto her inflamed skin. Beneath a flimsy, gauze-like sheet, her belly rolled as a boulder might, a weapon against her small bones. It made her seem powerful and vulnerable at once; it reminded Miles of how he remembered Charlie when she was a child, still Charlotte, bossy, two balled up fists against the world.

The nurse had her on another countdown. One, two, three, deep breath, push, one, two, three, a staccato chant. “Come on. You can do it. The baby is almost here.”

“Bass will be so proud of you. You are doing something he could never do. He practically pissed himself just thinking about it, he'll be balls out happy when he knows you've done it.” Miles desperately searched for the correct words – how to tell her that she is too good for him, that she is capable of anything without needing anyone's help. She cried out beneath him, and he instinctively curled a strand of dampened hair away from her face.

Somehow, he felt gone in this. Body fluids were everywhere; he could hardly recognize what was her sweat, her blood, or worse, anymore. He wasn't like Bass, his eternal best friend whose stomach would heat up at the mere mention of gore, but he had never thought about childbirth before. He skipped that day in health class, he had never had a long-term partner. He felt useless, encouraging Charlie to get it over with when it was almost too much for him to watch her experience. “Charlie, you can do this,” he echoed the nurse, “I know you can do this.”

Still bossy, still a fighter, Charlie scrambled to find her uncle's hand in the blackout of pain. She squeezed it, nails cutting his knuckles, and clearly catching him off guard. “Christ, Miles, I can't...” she huffed, too spent to roll her eyes. “Let me hold your hand or this baby's never coming out.”

Wordlessly, he accepted it. Never had he been one for hugs, kisses, cuddles, that sort of thing, and Charlie was just the opposite. He couldn't forget the time she pressed a peck of a kiss onto his lips as a toddler, then wailed for hours when he flinched and pulled away. As an adult, she only requested the occasional embrace during holidays or something – but now, alone in a hospital bed, unraveling, he could not deny her this. Even if he wanted to kick Bass' ass for not being able to suck it up and be the man that would welcome his child into the world.

The rest of the labor was physically grinding on both Charlie and Miles. Nobody could guess the extent of even half her strength, not to mention her lung capacity to yell. Apparently, it was genetic; the infant, scarlet and whimpering, came out loudly, as if she needed to proclaim to her unwell father down the hall that she had finally arrived.

Margaret. A name slightly too formal for Charlie, though it was insisted upon by Bass, who later suggested the nickname Maggie. Maggie. Her eyes held the depth of an ocean, her hair angelic, lighter than pure sand. The nurse immediately handed her off to Miles, a replacement father for the moment, while Charlie regained breath and sight. He rocked her at what he imagined would be a suitable pace, not too fast as to jolt her awake, just enough to heighten her senses. His second thought of Maggie regarded her tiny fingers, coiled like her mother's hair. Her ears that flared outwards just a little too much, like her father's. Somehow, the two people he loved the most created something more perfect than themselves; she is all them, all Charlie and Bass.

Maggie, calming down, grinned up at the man who held her safely to his chest, and although Miles found himself on the verge of inexplicable tears, he sucked it up and smiled back.

 


End file.
